NEW DELHI: The Centre on Saturday filed its written submissions in the Rafale fighter jet case, asking the apex court to dismiss the review petitions while stating that the courts should not interfere in the matter of defence preparedness.
The submissions were filed on the review petitions filed by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan and had sought review of the apex court’s December 14 verdict, which gave a clean chit to the Centre’s Rafale deal to procure fighter jets from Dassault.
In its submissions, Centre stated that the petitioners used certain documents with the intention to present a misleading picture before the court.
The Centre, while seeking dismissal of the petitions, said, “Any interference may affect operational preparedness of Indian Air Force.”
It added that the review petitions were based on flimsy and unfounded grounds.
“The procurement procedure of 36 Rafale jets is between the two sovereign nations and the implementation of the project which is on schedule and is being closely monitored by both the governments. The adequate safeguards are built into IGA for ensuring smooth implementation of the project. The training of Indian Air Force personnel is underway in France. Any attempt to bring this procurement under cloud may result into delay in implementation of the project and would affect the operational preparedness of Indian Air Force,” the submission stated.